As I eluded to earlier you would have to apply for a Tax ID. The tax Id would basically make you liable for collecting tax on all retail sales and reporting such. However, you may have to get some sort of special license for reselling tobacco since the state more than likely will want you to pay the in-state tobacco tax (which your online purchase would not charge or account for). You may be able to get by without getting a special tax license if you only purchase your cigars from retailers in the state you do business in (since the tax is already paid) but if you don’t get the special license then you more than likely would not be able to purchase from wholesalers. (I’ll try and contact my old boss, who owned a convenient store that sold tobacco and see if he needed a certain license, just as a side note selling tobacco is very profitable and actually generated 60% of the sales for the store he owned).
The next thing you may have to do is get a business license. This normally requires letters of incorporation and certificate of trade name, if that is the way you want to go. You may not have to get a business license if you want to act as a sole proprietor, however you will be held liable personally for any action taken against the business entity (This means personal assets may be forked over in the event you are sued). I would recommend some form of incorporation in the event you do sell tobacco and another party is actually selling the items for you (which in this case seems to be what you are implying). The reason I say that is just in case someone doesn’t ID someone and that person the cigar is sold to is under 18, you would be held liable for any suit as well as any possible fines the state may impose.
If you were to create this business and let the wine place sell the cigars for you, (following the above guidelines) you would probably be ok. I think the wine bar would want you to take the action on your behalf (in creating the business) since then they would have no liability essentially. Otherwise if you just sold them the cigars they would still have to apply for the license and such to legally sell the cigars (which essentially you would be of no use to them since they could inevitably buy the cigars cheaper than you anyway).
All in all you would be essentially starting you own cigar retail shop. You could inevitably expend and sell online. You would incur costs on setting up the business by creating an article of incorporation (which is normally drafted by a lawyer), paying the state for certificate of trade name (this searches to make sure you don’t use a copyrighted name for you business) and may have to pay for the special tobacco license (if there is one). The sales tax id is normally free (at least it is in MD and can be applied for online in most states). Well hopefully that helps out a bit.
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Originally Posted by chadth
so I'm looking for somewhere else. Me and the lady have been talking about moving to Florida, so I might just wait till we get down there, if we do.
Try some local golf courses. That would be a could place to have a small display humidor.
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